A Cold War Mystery Solved?

2014-12-31T05:03:28-05:00

From The Washington Post

The story of one of the Cold War’s greatest unsolved mysteries — and the new effort to solve it

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/12/30/the-u-n-wants-a-new-investigation-into-one-of-the-cold-wars-greatest-mysteries/

Around midnight on Sept. 18, 1961, a plane carrying U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold crashed nine miles from its intended destination, the town of Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, now the independent republic of Zambia. The 56-year-old Swede and 15 other people aboard the aircraft perished.

According to one account, Hammarskjold's body was found in the forest near the wreckage. He was "lying on his back, propped up against an ant hill, immaculately dressed as always, in neatly pressed trousers and a white shirt with cuff links." Hammarskjold is the only U.N. secretary general to have died while in office.

At the time, both the governments of Sweden and Northern Rhodesia claimed the incident was the result of pilot error. There was little evidence to be gleaned from the flight's sole survivor, an American sergeant who, before succumbing to his injuries, had said the plane experienced a series of explosions. A U.N. investigation the following year yielded no clear conclusion. It downplayed testimony from local villagers that a smaller, second aircraft may have shot down the plane.

EDITORIAL COMMENT:- Where the article gets really interesting (from a historical perspective) is the last few paragraphs which do put a bit of perspective on why the US isn't necessarily as universally loved in Africa as you would think it should be.

The story of one of the Cold War’s greatest unsolved mysteries — and the new effort to solve it

The General Assembly voted unanimously for a panel of experts to look into the 1961 death of U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold